Samsung launches Message Guard to protect users from cyber attack
Samsung has introduced a new Message Guard security feature for its Galaxy range of smartphones and tablets that can better protect users against “zero-click” cyberattacks disguised as image attachments in messages.
Zero-Click attacks have become very powerful and widespread, mainly due to their ease of deployment. With the evolution of zero-click attacks, mobile phone manufacturers, such as Samsung, are also improving their defense mechanisms against such threats.
The new feature is currently available on Galaxy S23 smartphones, which Samsung launched on February 17, but the tech giant said it will be gradually rolled out to other Galaxy phones and tablets later this year. It will be available for devices running version 5.1 or higher of Samsung’s One UI user interface.
What are Zero-Click Attacks?
Zero-click exploits can install malware on a device using just a JPEG or PNG image file. They are pretty dangerous, as the user doesn’t need to interact with the file, such as clicking or tapping on it, to get their device infected. Users cannot detect these exploits while the malicious code steals their private data and transmits it to hackers.
How Does Message Guard Prevent Zero-Click Attacks?
You can consider it an advanced sandbox or a virtual quarantine; it will run in the background with the Messages app. As soon as any image file is received, it will be isolated from the rest of the data to prevent any hidden malicious code from accessing the device data or interacting with the OS.
Samsung Message Guard will inspect the file bit by bit and process it in a controlled environment, thus neutralizing the threat to ensure the malicious file doesn’t infect the device.
Message Guard will look for malware in PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, ICO, WEBP, BMP, and WBMP formats. The feature will be rolled out to different versions of Galaxy smartphones and tablets running One UI 5.1 or above versions.